31: World News & Prophecy - Revelation 2:18-29

[Darris McNeely] Good morning, everyone, and welcome back. It's a very cold day here in Cincinnati. Those of you that are watching this online later on know that the class that I'm looking at is all bundled up, looking like Eskimos out here with the frigid cold weather that we are experiencing here in Cincinnati at this particular time. We've come to the, in our studies here in Revelation of the churches, to the story of the church at Thyatira. And I will go ahead and say Thyatira. All of us have probably grown up hearing that, saying that, but I learned that the more proper pronunciation is Thyatira, but we'll stick with that as we look at this here.

And so the message begins in chapter 2 at verse 18. And when it speaks here to the church in the city of Thyatira. Now just a little bit of a background. This is the fourth message, fourth church that is covered of the seven. So it falls right in the middle. You have the first three, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, here with is Thyatira. Afterwards we have messages to the congregations at Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. So this is right in the middle.

Now there's a method of looking at the messages to the seven churches that speak that there's similarities between the first and the seventh, the seventh and the sixth, the third and the fifth. And the fourth message being right in the center, in a sense kind of a standalone and yet has elements that pertain to all of them. It is also the longest of the messages, this passage beginning at verse 18 to this particular church.

It is an interesting place. We have a picture up here that essentially is all that you see of any reconstructed ancient evidence of the city of Thyatira today in the modern Turkish city of Akhisar. I've been there a couple of times and have decided to eliminate this stop from my tour this coming spring that I'll do because there's really nothing to see. And it's a modern industrial city. And there's a square block in the middle of the city that is very hard for 40 or 50 people on a tour bus to get off and navigate to this particular section. Very busy, a lot going on there, and actually quite dangerous to even get across the intersections. And so this year I decided I'm just not going to take them there. We'll talk about it and we might drive by it. If we do, I'll point it out and say we're passing the site.

Interestingly, the city fathers of the modern Turkish city have no interest in archaeological excavation of the ancient ruins of the city of Thyatira. They're not interested in Christian tourism, which is a big business in Turkey as it is in Israel. But the city fathers here are just not interested in it, it seems. And so there's one block with some big rocks and this particular stretch here of a few feet of archways and columns that have been put back together, none of which really tell us anything about the time of the city during the first century. And so it's off of my stop. We look at other places that pertain to the New Testament story that I think are time better spent for us.

And so it is interesting. In the ancient world, the city of Thyatira was also a significant industrial complex in the ancient world, and they're in Asia Minor. It had a very strategic situation and location on the roads of the day. And it was full of a lot of industry, guilds, trades, and various, you know, silversmith, coppersmith, armaments were manufactured there. And that's an interesting connection to, in a sense, what we are told here.

But it did have a lot of trade guilds, equivalent of our modern labor unions, and tanners and things like that, and bakers, and linen workers, and wool merchants, and even slave traders from the ancient time. But it had a prominent deity that they looked to, Teremnos, who was an ancient sun god, a representation form of the sun god. It, of course, had its temples to that god and many other gods and goddesses.

And we will see as we look into the message to the church at Thyatira that the problems that were faced by the church are much of, as the same that were faced by the other churches that are mentioned here in Revelation. They had idolatry, the emperor worship, the many pagan gods, and they were forced into situations where they were tempted very strongly to compromise with their faith by participating in these various services and worship aspects of these pagan temples, many of which were the patron deities of the particular trade guild—the tanners, the bakers, the linen workers, the wool makers, the boot makers. They all would have had their patron god or goddess, and a shrine temple that was dedicated to it. And a certain cult and priesthood there. And if you were doing business in any of these particular trades, you would be expected to honor that patron deity.

Doing so would mean some overt worship in the pagan service, going there and giving an offering. And very often, participating in a ritual meal at the temple. And so it was more than just eating food offered to an idol, which Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians, as the food itself being nothing. In this particular case and application, you would be expected to be at a banquet in the temple to do your part to honor the deity. And that would then be tied to your ability to function in your work.

It's kind of like looking at it today as paying your dues to be a union member today, and to be a carpenter, to be a plumber, and to participate in the economy of that function where you live. And if you don't do that today, then you're not union. And in some cases, you're not going to find work. This is what it meant in the ancient world, which is why we find the particular focus here on the message to Thyatira of the compromise and the pressure to worship a deity, to be so strong here in this.

And so let's go ahead and look at this as we focus in and begin to look at the message at verse 18 of chapter 2. "To the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass’" (Revelation 2:18). So the message again is coming from Christ, the Son of God, and the description that is given here in the image that is painted of Christ, the Son of God, who has flames of fire, and feet like fine brass.

It's a reference to Christ's role as the judge of all the other kings of the earth and the rulers who themselves plot against God, in a sense, to their ideas, their ambitions, their agendas, which were not God's among the earthly governments of the time, and certainly of today as well, there is that application.

The flaming eyes portray Christ's ability to judge righteously and with a certain finality. You know, the Bible talks about a refiner's fire, and certainly fire and extreme heat does refine metalwork in other ways and has that aspect to it. You know, even in a raging forest fire, as tragic and destructive as that can be, there is normally, and I'm talking about a forest fire, let's say out in the wilderness, like Montana, Wyoming, we're talking about this in the midst of the, or just in the kind of on the downside of the raging fires in Los Angeles that have taken place here in recent weeks, where there's been a great destruction of houses and property in and amongst the wood and brush that's been consumed as well.

But if you think about a large forest fire that every year in all parts of the world, you've had yours in Australia, we have them in the western parts of America, they go through and they will burn hundreds, thousands of acres of forest.

Well, that comes back. Yes, it's destructive, but it's not age-ending and it's not the be-all because there is a refining process to that, even that forest fire, as it goes through nature in a more natural, wild setting, it will burn, but life comes back. And that's demonstrated years later when seedlings will come back, grasses will come back, life will come back into those areas. It's a part of the cycle of nature that is. Now, where people and cities and towns are there, that adds the human development aspect, which is even more so. My point is that fire is a refining aspect that cleanses. And in this image right here of Christ with His eyes like a flame of fire, spiritually when we looked at that, we recognized that Christ is able to see into our hearts and our minds. When you read the Gospels, you see that very clearly. He could read Peter's mind. He knew who He was talking to, the woman at the well in Samaria, for instance, and He knew her life story, such as it was. Christ was omnipotent, even as God in the flesh.

He knew those things and could judge the heart. And this is an aspect that is certainly even more so in the resurrected, glorified Christ that John is portraying here as seeing flames of fire that can judge righteously and with a certain finality. And this, in light of the message to the members of the church here at Thyatira, is very important because Christ sees.

He sees our worship. He sees our heart and He knows. And if there is something that is lacking in that, if He sees that there's something lacking in that, He can judge that in a direct loving but firm way. He can reach into our minds, our lives, our hearts, and He can correct that by the power of His Spirit residing in each of His disciples. And so the church is being told, look to Christ in this manner. See Him as one who does have flames of fire, which elevates it to a different level than the baby Jesus, meek and mild concept that doesn't portray the living Christ. He does know us. He is our elder Brother in that way. And there is nothing that escapes His gaze and that's good. That is not bad. It's bad only for someone who is in an unrepentant mindset that does not want to obey God or someone who is laden with guilt and cannot be brought to repentance. So looking at Christ like this, if we believed that and we see this image, then you have to ask yourself, what changes would you make in your life?

If you really believe that Christ sees us, then what changes would you make in your life?

Well, all of us have changes that we should make. And we should do so with the reality that this is how that Christ does know every aspect of us. And again, to the message of the church here that was compromising, this is a critical setup. It goes on to the comment here that "His feet are like fine brass" (Revelation 2:18). That hearkens back to chapter 1 of Revelation, "His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace" (Revelation 1:15), where there's a similar picture of Christ there with feet like fine brass. And this points to His role as a judge of those who oppose His work among His people.

And a connection to the church in Thyatira, at least would have been in a very real sense in their modern setting or their ancient setting, would have had a very potent lesson to them. Brass is a metal that was produced in Thyatira in a very specialized way by a unique process. And those who were a part of that trade guild that did that took part in that in a very special quality of brass that we know was produced there. So the church hearing this would have had an allusion to something made in the city that they were known for that would also had its own patron deity, this Apollo-type god called Teremnos, who was supposed to be a son of Zeus, and Zeus being a counterfeit of Christ, the true Son of God. So there's a lot of interplay being woven here in the story.

And so a member in Thyatira, hearing this association of fine brass with Christ, would be warned that Christ is really showing Himself to be the true Son of God, not some deity that people put up to worship as a false representation. He's not to be confused in any other association with that type of a pagan god or even the ultimate emperor worship. And this would get the attention of those who were guilty of idolatry in the church in Thyatira at that time. And Christ knew what was happening, and He's showing them that there's going to be a judgment. And so it's a rather severe letter and warning that is being developed here.

He goes on to say in "I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first" (Revelation 2:19).

So there seemed to be then, by looking at the message, some members in the church who did hold the line against idolatry. They weren't caught up in it. And so you probably had different factions within the church and the congregation at this time. Those that held the line against idolatry were keeping faith with God and also a love for one another. And their hearts were right. They had good attitudes. They served one another in a true love and faith, modeling a godly conduct, which we see evidenced through many examples in the book of Acts. Witness Dorcas, others that come to mind in the story who were known for their good works and their abilities to bring people together like a Barnabas who worked with Paul and worked with the congregation in Antioch to bring their faith along.

And so these are people who managed to rise above the pagan culture and demonstrating their commitment and their calling as kings and priests, being prepared for that role as kings and priests in the Kingdom of God.

"The last are more than the first" (Revelation 2:19), speaking to endurance, speaking to growth.

You know, people who held the line in love, service, faith, and patience and good works likely grew in application, fervency, and zeal with all of these, which is what typically happens.

We grow in grace and knowledge. We grow in our commitment and our dedication within the church and how we serve. And you might be a little bit reluctant at some early point to be involved, but you find your gift, you find your calling, you find where you can fit in. And you can then grow in that and maintain that through a lifetime of service can be a way to understand how "the last is more than the first" (Revelation 2:19), that growth takes place and that growth endures and is even strengthened by resistance to compromising situations with the Word of God.

So let's go on to verse 20.

He then says here, He comes to the transition by the word, "Nevertheless, I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols" (Revelation 2:20).

Now here is a very detailed, explicit reference by name to a woman. We know it's a woman, it's not a man. We know her name at least. It could be her name. There's debate back and forth among scholars. Was this her name or was it the name of the Old Testament queen Jezebel who fought against Elijah, who was married to Ahab, who was a Gentile brought into and brought all her different gods into ancient Israel and taught Israel to worship the gods of Baal and the other false gods that all mounts to the story, the confrontation that Elijah had with the prophets of Baal in that episode in the Bible.

But it was a woman who was quite powerful, quite influential. She overcame that of her husband who himself had his corrupt problems and she introduced foreign pagan gods into the nation of Israel at that time. And so that story is well known from the Old Testament and the church would have known that. But then it was it, you know, would we look at the situation in the setting in Thyatira? Was it someone named that way or was it just that this name is being put upon in a type of a woman who likely had a different name and yet she was like this situation in the Old Testament in that she was teaching and seducing the members to commit immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

I tend to think that it's that way—that whoever this person was in the church, that wasn't her name. You know, how many people do you know today that are named Jezebel? Anybody know anybody named Jezebel? You don't hear that name. It's not used today in naming babies. Wow, you know, hi Jezebel. You know, can you imagine that today? It's just not done. So I don't think that that was her name. That's how I look at it there.

But it's what she did. Now how she did this is not said explicitly. There are some that feel that her teaching persuaded a person in the church that by attending the cult service of a god or goddess, eating food there that had been sacrificed to the idol and eating it in the presence of the idol—and in some cases, even taking place, taking part in sexual immorality as a part of the worship program of that temple—she convinced them and people that that's okay, allowed. And you could do that and still be a Christian and still be a church.

How would that be done? How would someone teach that to others in a church situation? Doesn't say. We could well imagine from our perspective today how that would have happened. Not knowing fully the setting of the church here in the first century and a lot of the way things were set up and done. We have our gatherings. We come into typically either a church we own or a place that we rent, and we conduct our worship services on the Sabbath or on the Holy Days.

We know the structure of our service, and we may have preteen Bible studies before or after services. We'll have youth instruction. We'll have other meetings and maybe a Bible study following the conclusion of a service. And we know our structure and it's very well defined today for us, and we couldn't imagine that being done—a woman standing up in some setting and teaching people to compromise. I mean, that wouldn't get very far. It might happen once, maybe twice, but I'll guarantee you there'll be phone calls made to Ministerial Services here, and it would be certainly looked into. I mean, we have that already with things that might happen that sometimes people might question and inquiry is made.

How this happened here—likely in private, likely in ways that were done offline, if you will—but it was done. I think what Christ is telling us where "He has eyes like fire" (Revelation 2:18), at the beginning, says that, hey, things can and will be done in private among people, whether it's first century or 21st century. Remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts. They conspired against God.

Well, how was that working within the church? It would have been offline in private, on chat sessions or private Bible studies or something like that. The point is it was being done, and Christ knows. He will always know where problems are festering, developing within His church. He will always bring it out in one way or the other, and He will, to borrow a phrase from chapter 3 in the message to Laodicea, "vomit it out" (Revelation 3:16). It will always be there. And He's doing it here in this case in Thyatira because it's having an insidious impact on the church.

Her teaching is destroying lives and the spirit life of the church. It goes on to say, "And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent" (Revelation 2:21). God always is patient. God doesn't act with lightning right away in every case. You know, we see that in the Old Testament where the sons of Aaron offered profane fire on the temple. God dealt with it just like that. Uzzah puts out His hand to steady the ark as it's being brought back up into the presence of the people. And just like that, God strikes. There are times that He does, but God doesn't do that in every case.

He says, "I gave her time to repent of her immorality, and she did not repent" (Revelation 2:21). He gives us time to repent. God doesn't call lightning down on us when we might sin. Or if there are two or three together conspiring in some way to disrupt the church, or compromise the faith of people, He gives time and space for repentance—but He knows, and He's working. And so He goes on to say that there will be a time of judgment in verse 22.

"Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds" (Revelation 2:22). And so there will be a time of judgment upon any situation, and ample time to repent and to bring that out. "I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and the hearts" (Revelation 2:23).

There's an interesting statement made here. Certainly it's one of judgment. "I will kill her children" (Revelation 2:23)—those who, the spiritual children, it's not talking about little children, but the spiritual children of this teaching who carry it, promote it by their life, example, and may promulgate it to others by their teaching. He said, I will deal with it. But then He says, "All the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your works" (Revelation 2:23).

Now, this verse shows us that the message to Thyatira has application to the church at Sardis or Laodicea or Ephesus, where there were difficulties or other challenges—Pergamos, we just studied.

You cannot take the message to any one church and isolate it just to that congregation in time or place. Whether the ancient world, a thousand years later, or today—every message has something to say to the church at any time and in any place. And by that, I mean the first century, the fifth century, the 20th century, the 21st century. And you cannot relegate that. I think this is very clear here. "All the churches shall know" (Revelation 2:23)—how will they know? They'll have access to this message, and they should listen to it. They should heed it. So again, you can't just segment that in time or place.

And that interpretation, as I said at the beginning here, as we are looking at these messages today in January, February 2025. What does it mean for us? What do we learn from each of these? How do we apply it into where we are in the Church of God experience today? And what do we need to repent of? What do we need to learn? There's something from each one of these that can speak to us. And some, as we will see, a little bit more than others. And yet idolatry is very much a part of us today.

I might just take a moment, and I've said this many times, we don't have pagan temples today, but we have other houses of worship that promulgate pagan-inspired teachings that have been drawn from the ancient world from this age and representative of the pagan cults of the first century and further back into antiquity. And that have been baptized with a Christian veneer, and whether it's Sunday worship, Easter, Christmas, Valentine's Day, New Year's Day, or other teachings that are false and not biblical and true, and yet are painted over with a Christian veneer, that's with us today.

And so to worship in those ways, it's a false teaching, and they promote false gods. So it is a form of idolatry. But we also have different... we have other manifestations of idolatry in our modern world that we should note as well. Yes, false religion, but we have other aspects of fame, status, money, celebrity that are idolatrous in just as strong a way as any false religious teaching that can weigh upon anyone and rip away righteousness, holiness, a lifestyle that is pleasing to God and are so embedded in our culture—just as the paganism of the first century was—that it impacts us and we may not even know it.

But we have to examine it. If we are more attuned to a cult of status, of celebrity, we have stars of music, stars of film, stars of sports, business. Go right on down the list where there's this cult of personality today where that in some cases does cause a person to cross a line into a form of a worship—of a person as a savior, as a role model, as a teacher, as a mentor. Think about it.

Who do we model our lives after? Do I say we don't try to be honest like Abe Lincoln? No, that's not what I'm talking about. Or from any other culture. Yeah, where there's godly qualities modeled by anyone, acknowledge that. And if it serves to motivate us, that's fine. But there are other personalities that, if we buy into the cult of that aura, then we're wrapping ourselves with a whole package that can involve immorality of the highest nature or anti-life ideology that casts a pall of ignorance and shallowness upon our life and can separate us from God and the pursuit of righteousness.

And each of us has to examine that, because we do it. It's dress-up time. It's modeling time within our life. Who do we model ourselves after? Who do we want to dress like or be influenced by? There are influencers today. These are the various aspects of modern idolatry that seep into us if we allow it and we don't know how to navigate our culture and our world and keep a straight, focused eye upon God, godliness, and the character of Christ and the worship of Him.

These are hard things for us to admit and to come to in our life. But each of us has to if we are going to grow in grace and knowledge and grow in a relationship with Christ in us and growing up to the image of Christ that so many scriptures will talk about. Those are the forms of idolatry that are so incessant and in some ways even more insidious than this first century setting for us today because we carry it around in a palm of our hand, on our laptops, and we're saturated by it and tempted and can allow it to influence us more than we realize and even more than some of these situations might have been in the first century world.

So that's a little bit of idolatry for us to think about. Let's go on with the message here in verse 24.

"Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come" (Revelation 2:24–25).

The depths of Satan here can refer to the very direct front that idolatry was and is, and that is a worship of demons. Paul talks about that in 1 Corinthians 10:20. The depth of satanic worship—whether we realize it or not—is there. And He's saying to us, if you have ears to hear what is being said, then don't worship anything before the true God or we could be in danger of entering into the depths of Satan.

And it's a core thought here, but it's a core thought of each of the messages to each of the seven churches here. We are to "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Matthew 6:33), and we can't allow any thought, any desire, any object, any person to stand between us and the true God.

It's the Kingdom of God first and last. It's the Kingdom of God now and forever.

And Christ is encouraging us with that vision as He does and to "hold fast what you have till I come" (Revelation 2:25). "And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations" (Revelation 2:26). So here's the explicit promise to the church of Thyatira, different from the other six. It is power and rulership over the nations that is being promised for overcoming the traps of power that are in this world today. Christ is coming as King of kings and He will rule from Jerusalem, and that is at the heart of the gospel of God. And Christ is telling the church to overcome this world and prepare to have a part in that. That's what this life is all about and these series of messages that are here.

And He's saying that "I overcame" and we can as well "with that rod of iron" (Revelation 2:27). And He said "as I also have received from My Father" (Revelation 2:27). And so He overcame the world and was given that position at the resurrection and His enthronement at the right hand of the Father.

"And I will give him the morning star" (Revelation 2:28). That's pointing to Christ as the Morning Star that shines bright. You will look at a morning star if you're up before dawn into the sky that shines brightest before the dawn of a day. And Christ is applying this to Himself and that's the only real application any star or other heavenly astral body should have. And that is to God's glory or specifically to Christ as the Morning Star, not some pagan deity.

So when we see Christ in our life clearly at the beginning of each day, then we can see the path forward and we can have guidance on that path forward.

So you might let that be a lesson, you know, you can apply with a lot of other aspects of the discipline of prayer and starting each day. There's a lot to be said for rising early, getting a good start on the day so that the days are used well in our lives. But most importantly, whenever we do start that day, starting it with the view toward Christ as the Morning Star, the beacon, the guiding star in our life, then it's going to be ensuring a very productive period of time for us. It concludes here in verse 29: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Revelation 2:29). Again, churches plural, all the congregations should be hearing the message coming from Christ who is the Spirit and the Spirit of Liberty that is being referred to here.

All right, so that is the message to Thyatira. We will take up next the message in the next class, the message to the church at Sardis.